The finale to the second act of Don Giovanni includes the famous (and identified) quotations of Martin y Soler's Una cosa rara ("O quanto un si bel giubilo," from the last part of the finale of Act I), Giuseppe Sarti's Fra i due litiganti il terzo gode ("Come un' agnello," from Act I, scene 7), and Mozart's own Figaro "Non più andrai"). These quotations are from the operatic "smash hits" of the 1780's. The overall scene is modelled upon the analogous scene in the Gazzaniga-Bertasi version of Don Giovanni. The use of a wind octet (with cello), combined with the quotations, alludes to the common practice of arranging popular operas for wind ensembles. The melody of "Non più andrai" returns in the last year of Mozart's life in the first contra-dance of K. 609. The practice of quotation and self-quotation is as old as composition itself although each age uses the borrowed material to its own ends.

Index Classifications: 1700s

Contributed by: David C. Birchler